Itās Day 20 of Stompboxtober! Enter now for your shot at winning todayās pedal from Electro-Harmonix!
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi Hardware Plug-in Effects Pedal and 2-in/2-out USB Interface
The Big Muff PiĀ® Hardware PluginĀ® is a new type of product that transcends the limitations of traditional DAW plugins to bring the unique qualities of analog sound to digital recording.
Analog hardware has a magical warmth that is beloved for its sound and feel. That was the genesis behind this product. Take the worldās most beloved harmonic distortion / sustainer and transform it into a plugin.
It works like a standard DAW plugin, but recorded tracks go through the actual analog circuitry of EHXās Big Muff Pi, injecting analog warmth into your session. Of course, it integrates seamlessly with all the most popular DAWs like Pro ToolsĀ®, Ableton LiveĀ®, CubaseĀ®, GarageBandĀ®, Logic Pro XĀ®, ReaperĀ® and more.
Simply connect the Big Muff to your DAW by USB, select a track, and open the plug-in window. Instead of software emulation, you have real clipping diodes, overdriving transistors, and nature itself coloring your sound. The analog circuit is pushed over the edge and loses control. The sound you hear is the natural warmth of electromagnetic chaos.
The new Big Muff Pi Hardware Plugin can even function as a 2-in/2-out USB audio recording interface, which enables the user to record with or without the Big Muff effect engaged.
The Big Muff Pi Hardware Plugin can be used as a stand-alone pedal and shares the circuit design of the legendary 1973 Violet Ramās Head Big Muff. That coveted pedal has set the standard for musical distortion and has been heard on countless classic recordings. Itās renowned for its unmistakable articulation and exceptional sustain, and now itās has been updated to be true stereo. It also features Tone Wicker, Tone Bypass and presets. With the ability to store up to ten footswitch-accessible presets on the pedal itself and as many as your computer can hold, it is truly a Big Muff Pi like no other!
A silicon Fuzz Face-inspired scorcher.
Hot silicon Fuzz Face tones with dimension and character. Sturdy build. Better clean tones than many silicon Fuzz Face clones.
Like all silicon Fuzz Faces, lacks dynamic potential relative to germanium versions.
$229
JAM Fuzz Phrase Si
jampedals.com
Everyone has records and artists they indelibly associate with a specific stompbox. But if the subject is the silicon Fuzz Face, my first thought is always of David Gilmour and the Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii film. What you hear in Live at Pompeii is probably shaped by a little studio sweetening. Even still, the fuzz you hear in āEchoesā and āCareful With That Axe, Eugeneāāwell, that is how a fuzz blaring through a wall of WEM cabinets in an ancient amphitheater should sound, like the sky shredded by the wail of banshees. I donāt go for sounds of such epic scale much lately, but the sound of Gilmour shaking those Roman columns remains my gold standard for hugeness.
JAMās Fuzz Phrase Fuzz Face homage is well-known to collectors in its now very expensive and discontinued germanium version, but this silicon variation is a ripper. If you love Gilmourās sustaining, wailing buzzsaw tone in Pompeii, youāll dig this big time. But its ā66 acid-punk tones are killer, too, especially if you get resourceful with guitar volume and tone. And while it canāt match its germanium-transistor-equipped equivalent for dynamic response to guitar volume and tone settings or picking intensity, it does not have to operate full-tilt to sound cool. There are plenty of overdriven and near-clean tones you can get without ever touching the pedal itself.
Great Grape! Itās Purple JAM, Man!
Like any Fuzz Face-style stomp worth its fizz, the Fuzz Phrase Si is silly simple. The gain knob generally sounds best at maximum, though mellower settings make clean sounds easier to source. The output volume control ranges to speaker-busting zones. But thereās also a cool internal bias trimmer that can summon thicker or thin and raspy variations on the basic voice, which opens up the possibility of exploring more perverse fuzz textures. The Fuzz Phrase Siās pedal-to-the-metal tonesāwith guitar volume and pedal gain wide openābridge the gap between mid-ā60s buzz and more contemporary-sounding silicon fuzzes like the Big Muff. And guitar volume attenuation summons many different personalities from the Fuzz Phrase Siāfrom vintage garage-psych tones with more note articulation and less sustain (great for sharp, punctuated riffs) as well as thick overdrive sounds.
If youāre curious about Fuzz Face-style circuits because of the dynamic response in germanium versions, the Fuzz Phrase Si performs better in this respect than many other silicon variations, though it wonāt match the responsiveness of a good germanium incarnation. For starters, the travel you have to cover with a guitar volume knob to get tones approaching ācleanā (a very relative term here) is significantly greater than that required by a good germanium Fuzz Face clone, which will clean up with very slight guitar volume adjustments. This makes precise gain management with guitar controls harder. And in situations where you have to move fast, you may be inclined to just switch the pedal off rather than attempt a dirty-to-clean shift with the guitar volume.
āThe best clean-ish tones come via humbuckers and a high-headroom amp with not too much midrange, which makes a PAF-and-black-panel-Fender combination a great fit.ā
The best clean-ish tones come via humbuckers and a high-headroom amp with not too much midrange, which makes a PAF-and-black-panel-Fender combination a great fit if youāre out to extract maximum dirty-to-clean range. You donāt need to attenuate your guitar volume as much with the PAF/black-panel tandem, and you can get pretty close to bypassed tone if you reduce picking intensity and/or switch from flatpick to fingers and nails. Single-coil pickups make such maneuvers more difficult. They tend to get thin in a less-than-ideal way before they shake the dirt, and theyāre less responsive to the touch dynamics that yield so much range with PAFs. If youāre less interested in thick, clean tones, though, single-coils are a killer match for the Fuzz Phrase Si, yielding Yardbirds-y rasp, quirky lo-fi fuzz, and dirty overdrive that illuminates chord detail without sacrificing attitude. Pompeii tones are readily attainable via a Stratocaster and a high-headroom Fender amp, too, when you maximize guitar volume and pedal gain. And with British-style amps those same sounds turn feral and screaming, evoking Jimiās nastiest.
The Verdict
Like every JAM pedal Iāve ever touched, the JAM Fuzz Phrase Si is built with care that makes the $229 price palatable. Cheaper silicon Fuzz Face clones may be easy to come by, but Iām hard-pressed to think theyāll last as long or as well as the Greece-made Fuzz Phrase Si. Like any silicon Fuzz Face-inspired design, what you gain in heat, you trade in dynamics. But the Si makes the best of this trade, opening a path to near-clean tones and many in-between gain textures, particularly if you put PAFs and a scooped black-panel Fender amp in the mix. And if streamlining is on your agenda, this fuzzās combination of simplicity, swagger, and style means paring down pedals and controls doesnāt mean less fun.
Our guest columnistās current pedalboard spices his EXH diet with stomps from Line 6, TC Electronic, Strymon, Fulltone, Ibanez, and Boss.
Ex-B-52s member, composer, and NYC music scene veteran Pat Irwin loves pairing EHX pedals with keyboardsāand recollecting good times with his late guitar virtuoso friend.
Iāve got a thing for Electro-Harmonix effects boxes. Iāve got a Crying Tone Wah thatās the coolest, a 16 Second Digital Delay, and a Deluxe Memory Man. All have made their way onto my ambient country band SUSSās new record, Birds & Beasts. And currently a Big Muff, two Freeze Sound Retainers, and a Mel9 Tape Replay Machine are on my pedalboard. Hereās the thing: I like using them on keyboards.
I remember spending one cold winter night recording keyboards for a track called āHomeā that made it onto Promise, the third SUSS album. I was playing a Roland Juno-106 through the Deluxe Memory Man while my bandmate Bob Holmes manipulated the delay and feedback on the pedal in real time. The effect was otherworldly. You can also hear the Crying Tone on SUSSās āNo Manās Landā and āTrain,ā on Bandcamp. Sure, the guitars sound great, but those keyboards wouldnāt sound the same without the extra touch of the Crying Tone. I also used it on the B-52sā āHallucinating Pluto,ā and it went out on the road with us for a while.
One of the first musicians I met when I moved to New York City in the late ā70s was the late, great Robert Quine. Quine and I would talk for hours about guitars, guitarists, and effects. I bought my first Stratocaster from Quine, because he didnāt like the way it looked. I played it on every recording Iāve made since the first Lydia Lunch record, 1980ās Queen Of Siam, and on every show with 8 Eyed Spy, the Raybeats, the B-52s, and my current bands PI Power Trio and SUSS. It was Quine who taught me the power of a good effects pedal and Iāll never forget the sessions for Queen of Siamwith the big band. Quine played everything through his Deluxe Memory Man straight into the recording console, all in one take except for a few touch ups here and there.
Quine and I used to go to Electro-Harmonix on 23rd Street and play through the boxes on display, and they let us pick out what we wanted. Itās where we first saw the 16 Second Digital Delay. That was a life-changer. You could make loops on the fly and reverse them with the flick of a switch. This thing was magical, back then.
āQuine played everything through his Deluxe Memory Man straight into the recording console, all in one take except for a few touch ups."
When I recorded a piece I composed for the choreographer Stephen Petronio and performed it at the Dance Theatre Workshop in Manhattan, I put everything through that 16 Second Digital Delay, including my clarinet. Later, when I recorded the theme for the cartoon Rockoās Modern Life, I played all of the keyboards through the Deluxe Memory Man. Just when things would get a little too clean, Iād add a little more of the Memory Man.
Iām pretty sure that the first time I saw Devo, Mark Mothersbaugh had some Electro-Harmonix effects boxes taped to his guitar. And I canāt even think of U2 without hearing the Edge and his Deluxe Memory Man. Or seeing Nels Cline for the first time, blowing a hole in the universe with a 16 Second Digital Delay. Bill Frisell had one, too. I remember going into the old Knitting Factory on Houston Street and passing Elliott Sharp. He had just played and I was going in to play. We were both carrying our 16 Second Delays.
Who knows, maybe someone from another generation will make the next āSatisfactionā or āThird Stone from the Sun,ā inspired to change the sound of a guitar, keyboard, or even a voice beyond recognition with pedals. If you check out Birds & Beasts, youāll hear my oldāand newāboxes all over it. I know that I wonāt ever make a SUSS record or play a SUSS show without them.
Things change, rents go up, records are being made on computers, and who knows how you get your music anymore? But for me, one thing stays the same: the joy of taking a sound and pushing it to a new place, and hearing it go somewhere you could never have imagined without effects pedals.